Want to Know: Your Daily Musk Companies Update (Patreon)

10th of February, 2025

"Autonomy will make the stalk about as useful as an appendix..." - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

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■ TESLA $TSLA ($350.73, -3.01%):

- Jay Leno's exclusive Model Y refresh episode of Jay Leno's Garage dropped today. He talks with Franz and Lars from Tesla and takes an in-depth tour of the vehicle.

- Per Elon, "And it only gets better from here. Tesla is still on track to launch autonomous ride hailing in Austin in June and roll out to many cities in America by the end of this year. The threshold is achieving safety far in excess of the average human driver. Ultimately, autonomous cars will be >1,000% safer than human-driven cars."

- Kilowatts (@klwtts) spotted a dirty new Model Y. "Looks like someone had fun in Tahoe this weekend with a pre-production refreshed Model Y."

- Tesla's first showroom in Main will open in Portland this summer at 35 Riverside Street.

- Tesla has reportedly rejected a revised water supply contract for Giga Berlin. The Strausberg-Erkner Water Association (WSE) had proposed changes to the existing agreement in an attempt to reduce Tesla's water usage and enforce stricter wastewater management rules. Per Tesla Plant Manager André Thierig, "These are changes in the annexes to the actual resolution agreement, and specifically changes in the special termination right and the water quantities, which could be adjusted unilaterally by the WSE. This is not related to the agreements we made together in the one and a half years of negotiations. As things stand, we are therefore not prepared to sign it."

- Renewable Construction Services (RCS) wrapping up a Tesla Megapack micro grid system in the Bay Area this weekend.

- Tesla submitted a petition to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to allow direct to customer sales in the state. The Circuit Court has set a motion hearing for the case on the 24th of March under case Tesla, Inc. vs. Wisconsin Department of Transportation et al is number 2025CV000075.

- Tesla filed a new trademark for the name Robus with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Robus is a portmanteau of Robot and Bus. Link in the sources section.

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

• Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer (@JoeTegtmeyer), 10th of February, '25.

• Giga Nevada Semi Factory: Zanegler (@HinrichsZane), 8th of February, '25.

■ SPACEX:

- SpaceX rolled Super Heavy Booster 15 to Pad A on Friday night. Wasting no time, they static fired Sunday morning! Last night, the booster was lifted into the catch position prior to being lowered onto its transport stand. It has since rolled back to the production site. Videos by @NASASpaceflight.

- Last night, Starship 34 rolled out of Mega Bay 2 and is now at Massey's Outpost getting ready for its static fire campaign. Video by Shaun Gisler (@lifeatstagezero).

Starship 34 and the SpaceX Team. Humans for scale. Amazing shot by @StarshipGazer!

- Former SpaceX network security engineer, Ryan Riedel, is now the new Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Department of Energy (DOE). His appointment highlights a shift towards leveraging private sector tech expertise for government positions and is anticipated to influence the DOE's IT strategy, potentially enhancing cybersecurity and operational efficiency.. Riedel's background includes roles at U.S. Army Cyber Command and the Navy.

- On Saturday, launch 18 of Falcon 9 Starlink 12-9 took place from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This was the 17th flight for the first stage booster. It previously launched Crew-6, O3b mPOWER, Bluebird 1-5, USSF-124, and 12 Starlink missions. The booster landed on drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean. 21 Starlinks were deployed, including 13 Direct to Cells.

- Delegates from The Bahamas visited SpaceX facilities in Florida this weekend carrying a Bahamian flag that Falcon 9 flew to and from space in March 2024. As I reported back in February of last year, the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism and SpaceX created a space-tourism plan that will have one of the SpaceX's autonomous drone ships serve as a Falcon 9 landing location near the Sandal's Exumas resort. That launch, Starlink 10-12, is now schedule for the 17th of February. This landing area will allow Falcon 9 to reach new orbital trajectories.

Per SpaceX's Kiko Dontchev (@TurkeyBeaver), "It was an honor to host the deputy prime minister from the Bahamas... The excitement is super high that we are only 10 days away. Unlocking Falcon landings in other countries is one small step in making spaceflight, aircraft like. I also know the landings will inspire a whole new generation of space enthusiasts in the Caribbean… because watching a rocket land is still the coolest thing ever!"

- Early this morning, the main Steel Chopstick cable was pulled through the Tower 2 at Starbase.

Countdown to 180 (17 - Falcon 9, 0 - Falcon Heavy, and 1 - Starship):

• Launch 19! Sunday, 9th of February, at 4:03 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 Starlink 11-10 will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will land on drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean.

• Launch 20! Tuesday, 11th of February, at 12:00 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-18 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Launch 21! Friday, 14th of February, at 12:26 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-8 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Launch 22! Wednesday, 26th of February, at 7:00 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Nova-C IM-2 & Lunar Trailblazer will launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The booster will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This is the second mission of Nova-C lunar lander developed and built by Intuitive Machines. This time it carries a NASA payload called PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1), which is to be the first demonstration of in-situ resource utilization on the Moon. PRIME-1 consists of two instruments: TRIDENT drill and Msolo mass spectrometer.

■ THE BORING COMPANY:

- The Boring Company is actively seeking to expand its workforce to scale the Vegas LOOP. They are hiring software engineers, operations engineers, supply chain specialists, and project developers. They will host an open house event in Las Vegas on the 21st of February at 6:00 p.m. PT. Got to the link in the sources section and fill out the application before the 16th to apply and possibly attend the event.

- The Texas A&M Formula Electric team had the opportunity to visit The Boring Company HQ in Bastrop, Texas. Pics by Hans Santos from the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University.

- Intern Benjamin Westlake, Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo. "It's been a month since I finished my internship at The Boring Company on the Integration team in Austin, Texas. I’m grateful for the experience of working hands-on with the Prufrock machines and seeing the development of next-generation tunnelling technology. Being a part of such a hardworking team was very impactful and will shape my future career."

■ NEURALINK:

- Neuralink's Romina Nejad (@RominaNejad) posted the above pics as she toured their array manufacturing line. This is how "our human grade arrays are made. This team is doing big things!"

■ STARLINK:

- During the Super Bowl, T-Mobile opened the Starlink Direct-To-Cell beta to anyone on any carrier in the US until July. If you can see the sky, you're connected. Per SpaceX's President and COO Gwynne Shotwell (@Gwynne_Shotwell), "We’re excited to team up with T-Mobile to bring our Starlink Direct to Cell capability to the US!" The link to sign up for the beta.

■ X:

- X's Joêlle (@YazbeckJoelle) this weekend presenting on the Creative Economy stage at the @LEAPandInnovate in the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Centre, Malham - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. "A real pleasure to take the at LEAP in Riyadh and share how 𝕏 is empowering the content economy!"

- X is set to launch a new NEWS TAB, powered by Grok. It will allow you to customize your news feed based on your interests like AI, sports, tech, video games, anime, and politics. With this feature, you can filter and save topics to focus on what interests you most. H/T by Iorel (@Iorel_X)

- Over the weekend, X offered 40% off annual Premium and Premium+ subscriptions. Prices on the web for Premium was $4.20/month ($50.40 per year), and Premium+ at $11.45/month ($137.40 per year).

■ xAI:

- "Your Tesla Delivery Has Been Completed... for today." Over the weekend xAI's Brent Mayo (@BrentM_SpaceX) showed us that the Memphis facility has received more Tesla Megapacks. He noted it takes only 3 days to have them fully operational for spike and peak energy use and alleviating grid stress. You should be following Brent.

- According to Iorel (@Iorel_X), xAI now has an option to Switch Model on the Grok website. Maybe to switch between Grok 2 and Grok 3.

- Per Elon on DeepSeek, "So you can expect that they (China) will do many great things and DeepSeek is one of them... It is very impressive. But that is simply a result of the immense amount of talent in China, that is very impressive. But it’s not some sort of complete revolution in AI. No, it is not. XAI and others will soon be releasing models that are better than DeepSeek."

- Memphis Light, Gas and Water (@MLGW) CEO Doug McGowen stated xAI’s planned water-recycling plant in Memphis would benefit the community and the environment. Memphis City Council postponed the vote until the 18th of February.

■ DOGE:

- President Obama appointed Judge Paul Engelmayer issued a ruling that blocks all Trump administration political appointees, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, from accessing Treasury Department data. He has done so under no legal or constitutional justification. This decision was made ex parte without allowing Trump's lawyers to present their case. Engelmayer's ruling sets a precedent of transferring control to unelected bureaucrats which undermines the Constitution's separation of powers. The move is a partisan power grab and is already creating calls for the Supreme Court to intervene, Engelmayer to be barred from future cases on executive authority, and for sanctions to be issued against involved Democrat lawyers.

Per Elon, "This ruling is absolutely insane! How on Earth are we supposed to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money without looking at how money is spent? That’s literally impossible! Something super shady is going to protect scammers."

- In this video, an unnamed federal employee in Virginia stated 19 to 21 year old DOGE employees are holding 15 minute interviews with employees to "justify their existence" before determining if they should be fired. Lmao, good. He also states DOGE members are sleeping in the building. I guess they do not like being asked "What did you get done last week?" Video from Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg).

- DOGE, in coordination with 35 agencies, terminated 199 wasteful contracts, saving $250 million, including a climate change project in Sri Lanka and a workshop on intercultural communication.

- President Trump has permitted Elon to hire 45 new DOGE agents to manage and audit the FBI, CIA, and the Pentagon.

- US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Edward Martin, posted a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice he sent to Steve Davis (President of The Boring Company) and Elon that highlights concerns over government efficiency and how he plans to protect DOGE through local law-enforcement.

- Today DOGE canceled a $17M project to provide tax policy advice to Liberia.

■ ELON NEWS:

- Elon had a conversation at the WELT Economic Summit on the 28th of January. He gave an insight into his perspective on current topics from AI to his support for the German AfD party. Full conversation in the sources section.

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Have a great day!

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■ SOURCES:

FLYOVERS:

• Giga Texas: Joe Tegtmeyer... coming soon.

• Giga Nevada Semi Factory 1: Zanegler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAzHndLkUvI

• Giga Nevada Semi Factory 2: Zanegler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dyC8ZdvvLo

Tesla:

• Jay Leno and the Model Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ6e4-1uuGA

• https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-rejects-revised-water-contract-giga-berlin/

• https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=99032883&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch

The Boring Company:

• Vegas Open House boringcompany.com/applyvegas

Starlink:

• T-Mobile Direct to Cell beta https://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/satellite-phone-service?cmpid=MGPO_PDS_P_SB59POSTPD_CA69EA19DCD8A9FD127804#sign-up-beta-form

Elon News:

• Elon Quote https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1889008569263046714

• WELT Economic Summit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVbRG2J1Saw